We headed over to Hoppers Crossing to drop the girls off at Andrew’s new girlfriends place. On the way back we considered many options for dinner: Williamstown, Footscray, Carlton, Brunswick Street; but we ended up walking down Smith Street in Collingwood, partly because the parking was easier and partly because we wanted to avoid crowds.
After considering options for Thai and Japanese, we stumbled upon Masak Masak. On the first glance at the clientel, I wanted to go in. After a quick scan of the menu, which included items like Otak Otak, I really wanted to go in.
We settled down at one of the few remaining tables and ordered a 2-3 pax meal. In a great stroke of genius by the menu designers, I could pretty much choose from any item within various parts of the menu to customise the meal.
To start with I chose Chicken crisps and jelly fish. As it is so rare, I generally choose jelly fish dishes when ever they are an option. It was a small but excellent starter. Kirsten liked the jelly fish until she learned what it was and prejudice took over.
Next was the Satay Beef. I had originally wanted Otak Otak, but the menu clearly said it was a satay to choose. The waiter was willing to consider the Otak Otak as it was a cheaper option, but I chose to go down the satay route. The satay was good.
Just after the satay arrived the Lo Han Cai arrived. A delicious dish of sticky black rice and other bits like Chinese sausage and mushroom. Kirsten ended up eating the majority of it.
Next arrived the Beef Rendang. It was just the right texture for the meat which was crumbly and the sauce which was dry. My only gripe being it was a bit hot for a rendang.
The last dish was Bok Choy and XO sauce. I had been forced a bit into this as the other dishes had prawns. Also by this time I was getting very full and only had a few leaves. Kirsten again ate the majority of it. My only complaint here was that we had the vegetable dish last. It should have arrived earlier.
For my drink I had a nice hot Teh Tarik.
All on all I was delighted. It has been a long time since I had such good Malaysian food and if it was closer than a 40 minute drive to get there we would be going there more often. As it is we will make it a staple to eat at when we are in town.